Cyma CM023 MP5 Airsoft Gun Review

The Cyma CM.023 MP5 airsoft gun is a great beginner package that includes everything you'd need for backyard shooting. And, in fact, it is a great stepping stone if you ever going to upgrade to a high-end airsoft gun down the road, especially if it is going to be another MP5. Another great use of this airsoft gun is realistic prop for your movie or photo shoot. For $20 to $30, how can you go wrong?

As you can see from this list, it includes everything you need to get started playing and more. Because of all these accessories being included for the price, when you upgrade your gun to a better MP5, you can actually save money in the long run.

For example, let's go through some Amazon prices (not including shipping/tax) for these re-usable parts: 1) low-cap magazine $4.66; 2) high-cap magazine $11.14; 3) speed loader $0.99; 4) sling $5.65; 5) MP5 rail $9.11; 6) cleaning rod $3. Just these parts add up to $34.55 and that's not including shipping (many of these items are not eligible for Prime and Super Saver).

Gun

The gun is model after the Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun. In fact, the sellers of this gun claim that it is a exact Tokyo Marui replica. But I seriously doubt that it is a true replica, because after taking it apart, I found that it is practically not upgradeable. (See "Is the Cyma CM.023 a True Tokyo Marui Replica?" thread.) On the other hand, Tokyo Marui airsoft guns has plenty of upgrade parts. Perhaps, this Cyma CM023 gun is just a Tokyo Marui replica on the outside.

The Cyma CM.023 MP5 airsoft gun has a fire mode selector with three settings: 1) safe; 2) semi-auto; 3) and full auto. Semi-auto is quite sufficient, because the trigger is light enough to shoot out the entire 30 round magazine in a few seconds.

In fact, shooting with this airsoft gun in the back yard is a lot of fun. It's more fun than the Daisy Powerline 880 air rifle, because the Daisy rifle needs to be pumped for each shot, whereas the Cyma CM.023 can fire continuously without a break. Although the Daisy Powerline 880 fires BBs at an impressive 750 feet per second (FPS) and pellets at 715 FPS, the Cyma CM.023's 150 FPS is more than sufficient to puncher the same charcoal bag target, used for the Daisy, in our backyard.

The entire Cyma CM.023 gun is made out of plastic, except for a few sling mount parts. That means if you want a realistic heavy metal airsoft gun, then this one is not it. But its plastic assembly means it is extremely light, yet it feels quite sturdy.

Because it's so light, even my toddlers can hold the gun up. This gun is perfect if you want to train your kids gun safety and teach them the basics of shooting. But just keep the silencer off when you hand the gun to your kids (see "Silencer" section below).

Magazines

The Cyma CM.023 package includes two magazines. One is a realistic low-cap magazine that holds 22 rounds. The other is a high-cap magazine that holds a lot more BB's. The low-cap magazine works really well out of the box. There is no wobble in the magazine well. And it feeds the gun without any problems.

However, the real MP5 counter part uses either a 15 round magazine or a 30 round magazine. So the low-cap magazine included with the CM023 is inadequate to simulate the real 30 round magazine. Instead, it can only simulate the real 15 round magazine in milsim. New 30 rounds or higher magazine is needed for the CM023 in a milsim situation.

The 150 round high-cap magazine on the other hand is finicky and unusable out of the box, until you figured out the trick. It is loose in the well and moves up and down. The trick is to slam it in there and get it to seat well. After you do it once or twice, it'll work just fine. (See "The Finicky Cyma CM023 Hi-Cap Magazine" thread.)

The high capacity magazine is shaped to replicate a double cinched magazines pair. it has fake 9mm bullets to look like real MP5 double cinched magazines. You slide the fake bullet cover out to load BB's. Once BB's are loaded, you'd wind the winding wheel to feed the BB's. You'll hear/feel a winding wheel click change. When you get to that point, the gun can shoot through all 150 BB's without having to wind it again.

Silencer

The included silencer is a fake one. But it sure looks great on the Cyma CM.023 MP5 gun. In fact, it looks better than many other MP5 airsoft guns on the market. It's one of the enticing reasons I bought this gun.

To install the silencer, you'd unscrew the existing orange muzzle tip. Then screw the silencer onto the plastic screw. Just don't let little kids play with the silencer when it's mounted on the gun. The extra long length provide great leverage for little kids to break the muzzle tip off.

After my toddlers broke off the tip, I wished the screw is actually on the silencer side. That way I could extract the broken screw and get a new silencer for the gun. But with the current design and no replacement parts, the tip is going to remain broken (meaning no silencer).

Rail

The rail that comes in the Cyma CM.023 package is a plastic riser rail that meets the MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny Weaver standard. You can pretty much mount any standard tactical accessory to it. It snaps onto the top of the MP5 and is quite solid in its attachment; it won't pop-off, but will slide forward and back. You can fix it in place with four included screws.

Once the riser rail is mounted on this gun, the iron sights (plastic in this case) become useless. So before you fix the rail onto the gun with the screws, be sure to get a useful sight. (See next section on why the included red dot scope is useless.)

The more expensive MP5 airsoft guns doesn't come with this rail. So, hopefully when you upgrade to another MP5 gun, this rail could come in handy.

Red Dot Scope

The red dot sight is just a toy and is unusable. It's lenses are made out of plastic and very blurry to see through. Once the red dot is turned on, the reflection create so much glare you can't see through it at all. This is really disappointing. Had Cyma included a fully working $10 sight, this package would be unbelievable in price.

The red dot scope seems to be replica of the Leapers Golden Image 30mm Red/Green Dot Sight (see "Related Links" below). But unlike the real thing, this red dot scope does not have adjustment for elevation and windage. If it did, it would be useless anyway, because you can't really practically see through it.

The on/off knob is on the top of the scope. You can unscrew the knob to get to the two AG10 button cell batteries inside the scope (see photo below). The best thing you can do with this scope is to pull the batteries out to use in something else.

I can tell you that this scope has a standard Picatinny Weaver mount for attachment to any standard tactical rail. But what's the point? It's unusable anyway.

There is one other use for this red dot scope. If you are making a movie and need a mock gun, this scope actually looks kind of cool on the rail.

I did think of one other use for this red dot scope: a visual communicator. Send morse code to your team mates by turning it on and off in sequence. Or send a 'go' signal. Yes, you guessed it, other people can see the red dot light. And the back window help you see when it's on and off.

Battery and Charger

The Cyma CM.023 package comes with a small battery and charger. The gun, battery, and charger all use a special proprietary connector that I never seen in the airsoft and R/C world. The battery is also much smaller than the standard R/C and the small airsoft batteries. The battery can serve as backup batteries for your other guns, if you change out the proprietary connector. But supplying only 7.2 voltage, the possible applications are limited.

The battery is 7.2v and only 350 mAh. The charger is a 200 mA power supply. So, by basic math, the charger should be able to charge the battery in 2 hours. Yet, the manual claims that you should charge it for 7 to 8 hours. I'm no electrical engineer and don't know the real math behind it. But it just seems perculiar to me that it would take so long to charge such a small battery.

Two-Point Sling

The Cyma CM.023 package provides a two point sling. The adjustment bracket is made out of plastic. But, surprisingly, the snap-on hooks are made out of metal. It's not a bungee, just a plain, basic, black sling. You can use it as an one-point sling by connecting both ends to the same point on the gun.